Erectile dysfunction treatment aside, Bare Knuckle Fighting
Championship 1 was a surprising hit, as it rose to as high as No. 2
for trending topics on Twitter. In the fight game, success rarely
comes by accident, and this was a decade in the making for Feldman.
The combat sports business runs in the Philadelphia native’s blood.
His father was a boxer turned trainer, while Feldman and his
brother were fighters, as well. They took up fight promotion when
their boxing days were over. Feldman has since promoted 300 combat
sports events, and BKFC 1 was not his first foray into gloveless
bouts.

While promoting fights for legendary bareknuckle pugilist Bobby
Gunn many years ago, Feldman became interested in the old-world
sport. Once indoctrinated in its history and after doing some
research of his own, Feldman realized it was something he wanted to
take to a publicly promoted forum. However, even Gunn was
skeptical.

“I went to Bobby one day and said, ‘I’m going to do one of these
fights,’” Feldman said, “and he said, ‘Come on pal, you’ve got no
shot.’”

His friend’s lack of faith did not deter him. In August 2011,
Feldman put on an event at Fort McDowell Casino in Arizona. It was
headlined by a bareknuckle fight, with MMA bouts on the
undercard.

“We did over 5,000 people in attendance,” he said. “That’s why I’m
here today and the reason why we did [the first event]. We did 1.2
million people on the Internet stream [of that show].”

The interest caught Feldman and his staff off-guard, as the
underprepared group’s paywall service crashed during the broadcast.
As a result, they did not make any revenue from the streams.
Despite the revenue loss, Feldman saw plenty of positives in the
unfortunate digital failure.

“I knew right then, ‘Man, 1.2 million people in 42 minutes were
interested in buying this event,’” he said. “That gave us the drive
to keep this going.”

The success Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 1 enjoyed was built
on years of experience and some fortunate changes to Wyoming’s
state laws. However, Feldman could not have gotten here without
plenty of help. His organization staffs only five full-time
employees. However, that number ballooned to 28 the night of the
first event, most of them from the Philadelphia and
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania. Feldman praised their
dedication.

“This team took the journey with me,” he said.

Feldman claims the promotion has drawn the eyes of investors.

“I’m talking to a really large private equity firm right now that
wants to fund this thing and hopefully make it the Next Big Thing,”
he said.

Beyond the audience at the arena, Feldman did not rely on digital
streams alone. He set his sights on pay-per-view and found that
making deals with major providers was not a problem.

“We didn’t get as much pushback as I thought we were going to get,”
Feldman said, “[though] we did get a lot from some international
live TV.”

Major providers like Direct TV and Dish Network carried the event,
and the international broadcasters who chose not to broadcast the
show have since contacted Feldman and now want to re-air the
finished product. They are also open to carrying the next event
live. BKFC had the staff, money and broadcast mediums necessary to
succeed, along with skilled matchmaking. Many of the bouts on the
10-fight card were booked by Feldman himself. It was a difficult
part of the process.

“The whole world was watching,” Feldman said. “Everyone was
watching us under a microscope wanting us to fail, and we had to
make the right matchups.”

The hard work appears to have payed off, as aforementioned Twitter
trends showed global interest and many in the arena seemed
entertained by the old-school bloodsport. According to Feldman,
none of the fighters who competed needed hospital visits
afterwards. He claims the only notable injuries were a broken
thumb, a broken nose and a possible broken hand. Whether BKFC can
maintain a low injury rate for future events remains to be
seen.

While official pay-per-view numbers will not be available until
next month, Feldman has received positive words on early estimates.
FITE TV, one of the services that streamed the show, indicated that
early indicators are strong.

“From the FITE TV side, we’ve heard that we did some pretty
historic numbers,” Feldman said. “[It was] one of the most-watched
events that they have had.”

Feldman, however, based success on other factors.

“It was that we wake up on Sunday morning and that the fans said,
‘We want more,’” he said.

Because of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 1, Feldman has gained
traction with local residents, state politicians and officials with
the Wyoming Combative Sports Commission. He believes they will
support future events.

“Not many people knew that Wyoming had a combative sports
commission,” Feldman said. “Now, Wyoming’s Combative Sports
Commission is known worldwide, so they were very thankful.”

With one event in the books, roster growth and development have
become the major initiatives for Feldman and his staff. They have
received 500 new applications since the inaugural event aired, and
in the days that followed, they signed 75 fighters to contracts and
would like to add another 125 in the coming weeks. The goal,
Feldman revealed, is to have as many as 20 fighters in each weight
class. He admits he is looking for more than just skill in
prospective competitors.

“The fighting is the main part of it,” Feldman said, “but you have
to have some kind of character and personality nowadays to go along
with it.”

Feldman plans to stage four events in 2018 before promoting eight
more in 2019, using a mix of major pay-per-views and smaller
theater shows. He expects more states -- Feldman hinted that the
next shoe to drop would be in the Southeast -- to legalize the
sport. The idea that a Philadelphia-based promoter would launch his
bareknuckle product from Wyoming of all places adds some spice to
the story.

“[Media outlets say] 1889, but this is the first state-regulated
bareknuckle fighting event ever,” Feldman said. “I envisioned this
in my head for 10 years, but I really didn’t believe that it was
going to happen like this. I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”